The State Bar of Michigan announces Michele L. Halloran, clinical professor of law and director of clinical programs at Michigan State University College of Law, as recipient of its 2013 Champion of Justice Award.

Nominees are evaluated based on specific criteria including their integrity and adherence to the highest principles and traditions of the legal profession; superior professional competence; and an extraordinary professional accomplishment that benefits the nation, the state, or the local community in which the lawyer or judge lives.

Professor Halloran administers all aspects of the Law College's expanding clinical programs as the director of the MSU Legal Clinic. As director of the Alvin L Storrs Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic, she is responsible for the general operations and management of the clinic, which serves low-income clients and taxpayers for whom English is a second language, and provides MSU Law students with experience practicing tax law. Professor Halloran also works closely with MSU Law’s new Urban Food, Farm, and Agriculture Practicum, which provides legal research, policy development, client counseling, and the provision of transactional legal services to nonprofits and low-income individuals working with urban agriculture in Detroit, Michigan and other urban settings.

Before joining the faculty at Michigan State Law in 2000, Professor Halloran was a partner at the law firm of Howard and Howard for nine years. She served as an administrative law judge for the Michigan Tax Tribunal; a law clerk to the Honorable Mary S. Coleman, former chief justice of the Michigan Supreme Court; a prehearing attorney for the Michigan Court of Appeals; and a law clerk for the State Board of Tax Appeals.

Professor Halloran graduated cum laude in 1979 from Thomas M. Cooley Law School and summa cum laude in 1973 from LeMoyne College.

No more than five Champion of Justice Awards are presented to practicing lawyers and judges each year. Recipients must be State Bar of Michigan members for at least 10 years. All recipients are selected by the State Bar of Michigan’s board of commissioners. The award will be presented on September 18, 2013, at the State Bar of Michigan’s Annual Meeting in Lansing.